So if there's one thing guaranteed to get me spitting, its a nepotistic love in. Oh look MEITGF
(I got the acronym wrong deliberately, pedants). But my latest, greatest source 0of ire is the one which slithers through my letterbox once a year, courtesy of my friends at Broadcast. Yes,its the arsing HOTSHOTS edition. Yes its the up and coming new stars of tomorrow.There's just one problem in order to be considered you have fulfil the following condition:
"To be considered as a Broadcast Hot Shot, each individual must be nominated by a company. Each nomination must also be accompanied by a written testimonial from a senior individual at that company."
RIIIIIGHT: So, in the very first category "business" we have "six to start". Correct me if I am wrong, but it appears they set up this company in 2007/2008 and they themselves (Dan and Adrian Hon) are the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer themselves, which begs the question: who nominated them, or did they just nominate each other? That isn't really in the spirit of the games, I thought, or if it is, then perhaps Broadcast need to revise their rules?
Not that I have a problem with self nomination - in fact, far from it. I congratulate every one of those well-connected, Oxbridge educated smooth talking bastards that convinced their bosses to give an obsequious quote to Broadcast blowing smoke up their arses. Even more (much more) I congratulate those who got there under their own steam and are building brilliant careers working in fantastically successful companies and who will, in the not too distant future be calling the (metaphorical) shots in TV. But that leaves just one question. Which is : how many brilliant freelancers out there have been overlooked because, at the time of asking, they weren't working with a company that they could rely on to nominate them? Is it a coincidence that out of 17 Hotshots in production, only 1 was a freelancer? I suspect not.
Thursday 10 September 2009
Saturday 5 September 2009
The tyranny of blogging....
updating the damn thing every day. Well I said I'd do it, so I have.
I know. That was ten seconds of your life that you wont get back. If you ended up here and you aspire to a career in telly, I hope this makes it worthwhile. Courtesy of Charlie Brooker, whom I *heart*.
I know. That was ten seconds of your life that you wont get back. If you ended up here and you aspire to a career in telly, I hope this makes it worthwhile. Courtesy of Charlie Brooker, whom I *heart*.
Friday 4 September 2009
The TV working time directive
I the undersigned freelancer am prepared to bend of backwards (or should that be forwards) and allow myself to be shafted royally by the people in charge of this mismanaged, poorly strategised, cesspit of slavery we laughingly call an industry.
OK I exagerrate (nothing new there) BUT one of the things that really annoys me is that in this crazy world of TV is that the long hours accepted to be a necessity, when they are not. The BBC even tries to get most of its freelancers to sign six day contracts these days FFS!
Way back in the dim and distant past I made a progamme for a company called SPE. It was a rather bizarre company on many levels, not least, however that their working hours were 9-5 and the office was locked at 6pm. We made a series for the BBC. It was on time and on budget. I saw the 5:45 news when I got home at night (weird). I was not permanently knackered and stressed.
Apart from occasional extenuating circumstances, TV doesn't NEED to have a long hours culture. We are only manufacturing a product. There are many, many millions of products manufactured in the world - some of them every bit as complex as a TV programme with just as tight budgets and schedules, which do not rely on staff working 12 hour days (or more).
I just wish a few more people in charge would run it normally. So often its more about inherited assumptions that it *needs* to be the way it is. Like Chicken Licken, series-producers run around convinced that the sky will fall in should they or their team dare to leave the office before 7 or 8pm.
But does the fault lie with the broadcasters, who squeeze the production companies? Or the production companies who squeeze the freelancers? Or with the freelancers who work for nothing because they are desperate? Well nobody is blameless, but if you do work for nothing, you're a moron. Because the buck does stop with you. Literally. If you don't value yourself, nobody else will. Richard Branson didn't make a fortune giving away car aeriels out of the boot of his car now, so come on media graduates, don't be shy, and don;t undersell yourself, because it benefits none of us.
If it can't be done in normal hours at a decent pay then the budget is too poor, or the schedule is too tight. As that stupid smoking jacketed meerkat would say: simples.
OK I exagerrate (nothing new there) BUT one of the things that really annoys me is that in this crazy world of TV is that the long hours accepted to be a necessity, when they are not. The BBC even tries to get most of its freelancers to sign six day contracts these days FFS!
Way back in the dim and distant past I made a progamme for a company called SPE. It was a rather bizarre company on many levels, not least, however that their working hours were 9-5 and the office was locked at 6pm. We made a series for the BBC. It was on time and on budget. I saw the 5:45 news when I got home at night (weird). I was not permanently knackered and stressed.
Apart from occasional extenuating circumstances, TV doesn't NEED to have a long hours culture. We are only manufacturing a product. There are many, many millions of products manufactured in the world - some of them every bit as complex as a TV programme with just as tight budgets and schedules, which do not rely on staff working 12 hour days (or more).
I just wish a few more people in charge would run it normally. So often its more about inherited assumptions that it *needs* to be the way it is. Like Chicken Licken, series-producers run around convinced that the sky will fall in should they or their team dare to leave the office before 7 or 8pm.
But does the fault lie with the broadcasters, who squeeze the production companies? Or the production companies who squeeze the freelancers? Or with the freelancers who work for nothing because they are desperate? Well nobody is blameless, but if you do work for nothing, you're a moron. Because the buck does stop with you. Literally. If you don't value yourself, nobody else will. Richard Branson didn't make a fortune giving away car aeriels out of the boot of his car now, so come on media graduates, don't be shy, and don;t undersell yourself, because it benefits none of us.
If it can't be done in normal hours at a decent pay then the budget is too poor, or the schedule is too tight. As that stupid smoking jacketed meerkat would say: simples.
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